Frank Zunno was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1923. He lived with his parents and one younger sister. During the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945], his father worked seven days a week as a plumber. One time, his father injured himself on the job and he had to stay home to recuperate. There was no work compensation or insurance at the time, so it caused some concern for the family. Luckily Zunno's extended family was able to help during this difficult time. His mother raised the family and worked at home doing textile labor. Zunno had a paper route, swept rugs on the weekends, and ran errands to make money. He also assisted his dad on plumbing jobs. After graduating high school, he began taking classes at City College of New York [Annotator's Note: in New York, New York]. He was a student there when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Zunno had gone to a movie like he did every Sunday. After leaving the theater he stopped at a candy shop and while he was there several people entered the shop announcing what had happened. He looked at the pictures of the event in the newspaper the following day and realized the significance. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings at 0:09:03.000.] At the end of his first year of college, Zunno and a friend took a trip to Florida. When they returned to school, all of the male students and staff were gone. Right then, Zunno and his friend decided to enlist and did so the following day [Annotator's Note: in November 1942]. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings at 0:11:27.000.] They both applied for the pilot cadet program [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Aviation Cadet Training Program]. Zunno's friend passed the entrance tests but Zunno failed his physical and was rejected. He immediately left the recruiting station and walked around the corner to the Army recruiter and enlisted in the regular Army. He was determined to wear a uniform and pick up a gun. He selected to go to ordnance school because he liked to work with machinery. He was sent to Aberdeen, Maryland and learned how to repair machine guns and light artillery pieces.

Frank Zunno was sent to an Armored Division, filling their ranks to be deployed. He was met by plenty of farm boys who all knew each other and did not accept city boy Zunno. He ended up working in the kitchen for six weeks. Zunno started to get restless so he decided to apply to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer cadet school]. He was accepted, but instead of going to an officer training school, he was placed in the Army Specialized Training Program [Annotator's Note: generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] and sent to Penn State [Annotator's Note: Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania]. All the students were GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier]. After six months, Zunno decided to quit the ASTP and tried again to get into the pilot cadet program. This time he passed his physical and was sent to a pre-flight school in North Carolina. After three months, he completed his training and started flight school in a civilian flight program. He received several weeks of ground school then started flying in Piper Cub [Annotator's Note: Piper J-3 Cub light observation aircraft] light observation planes. Zunno enjoyed flight school. He just wanted to be a pilot. Four months after he began his flight training his dream was crushed. All the cadets were informed that the aviation program was being disbanded and that they were going to be sent back to the units they had come from. Zunno wanted to get into the action so after he was released from the aviation program, he volunteered for parachute training. Zunno took his jump training at Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia]. The training was physically intense, but a month later he was jumping out of planes. In July 1944, Zunno earned his jump wings [Annotator's Note: Parachutist Badge, also commonly referred to as "Jump Wings"]. After jump school he was given a short leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] before taking advanced combat training.

By December 1944, Frank Zunno's jump school training was complete. Around Christmas Day 1944, Zunno boarded the Queen Elizabeth [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Elizabeth] and steamed for Europe. His bunk was in the bottom of the empty pool. He eventually ended up in a replacement depot near Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He was issued winter clothing, cold weather gear, and an M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. The M1 was caked with Cosmoline grease [Annotator's Note: name for petroleum-based corrosion inhibitors] and it took quite some time to clean it all out. He received some machine gun training, using the M30 machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M1919 .30 caliber air cooled light machine gun]. Zunno had not been at the replacement depot long when an officer from an airborne unit entered the camp and called his name. Zunno and a few other jump-qualified soldiers were taken to their new unit, the MP [Annotator's Note: military police] Platoon of Headquarters, 17th Airborne Division [Annotator's Note: Military Police Platoon, Headquarters, 17th Airborne Division] in Chalons-sur-Marne [Annotator's Note: Châlons-sur-Marne, now Châlons-en-Champagne, France]. His job in the MP Platoon was to guard the headquarters staff and the commanding general, and to protect the members of the Counter Intelligence Corps who would frequently go out into the field looking for enemy troops or politicians. As an MP, Zunno was not frequently in combat. His job kept him a little behind the lines but not out of the action completely. He lived in better quarters compared to the infantry out in the snowy fields.

In March 1945, Frank Zunno and his unit [Annotator's Note: Military Police Platoon, Headquarters, 17th Airborne Division] took part in Operation Varsity [Annotator's Note: Operation Varsity, 24 March 1945, Wesel, Germany], which was a British and American mission to drop 25 miles into Germany. Zunno was not afraid of the jump. He was more afraid of the plane being shot down. The clothing they were wearing had pockets, but everything in the pockets flew out because of the jolt of the parachute opening. [Annotator's Note: Zunno asks to pause to get an Army figurine at 0:42:54.000. He points out all the equipment on the figurine that the parachute troops had on them during the jump from 0:42:54.000 to 0:46.20.000.] Zunno landed in one of the follow up waves an hour after the initial commencement of the operation. His first job was to get off the field as quickly as possible after landing. Since his job was to guard the Headquarters personnel, he did not go in until the landing zone was secure. Even so, there was still quite a bit of fire taking place when he landed.

Within two days of his jump into Germany, Frank Zunno and his unit [Annotator's Note: Military Police Platoon, Headquarters, 17th Airborne Division] was watching almost 1,000 German POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war]. They had no food or water to give the men. He was not given any orders and felt stuck. Many of the German soldiers were young and tired. To him, the Germans were done with war and just wanted to go home. One night, he was able load the German prisoners onto a truck to take them to a detention camp. After turning the prisoners over, he returned to his regiment. They thought he was missing, and he had to explain where he had been to his commanding officer. They pushed toward the city of Munster [Annotator's Note: Münster, Germany]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview at 0:56.13.000 to change tapes.] They were still short of their objective when they received orders to push into the Ruhr Valley to clean up the area and helped the displaced people. They were moving in when they got word that the war in Europe was over. Zunno began escorting Counter Intelligence Corps personnel looking for German politicians who were hiding from the authorities. It was a chaotic period. They would raid houses at night capturing these target persons. One night, he was trying to get back to the base after a mission and he ran the jeep into a light pole. Everyone came out of the crash okay, but Zunno was not allowed to drive anymore. They [Annotator's Note: the German politicians] surrendered without a fight. When it was time for many of the paratroopers of the 17th Airborne Division to rotate home, Zunno and many others were transferred from the 17th to the 82nd Airborne Division at Epinal [Annotator's Note: Épinal, France] then sent by train to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] for occupation duty. Zunno was assigned to the MP Platoon, Headquarters, 82nd Airborne Division [Annotator's Note: Military Police Platoon, Headquarters, 82nd Airborne Division]. The German people did not like the Russians and welcomed the Americans. Zunno interacted with the Russians frequently during his time in Berlin. The Russians carried their weapons everywhere, while the Americans did not.

From June 1945 to November 1945, Frank Zunno was assigned to occupation duty [Annotator's Note: in Berlin, Germany with the Military Police Platoon, Headquarters, 82nd Airborne Division]. He had to wear his uniform everywhere. They could go to the theater or go swimming in a pool. The Red Cross had special events for the service men as well. They could go to school or the recreation center. The only Americans that were working were the MPs [Annotator's Note: military police]. Zunno was assigned to handling traffic and guarding areas. Some enlisted men would become officers overnight so they could date the nurses and Red Cross ladies. There was always alcohol in truckloads. In Berlin, they confiscated someone's home. One day, a little German girl came up to Zunno and asked him if he would take her dog because she could not care for it anymore. Zunno happily took the dog for the little girl and never saw her again. Zunno was able to ship the dog to the United States to his father's house. Zunno had the dog for 11 years. When the Japanese surrendered, there was a big celebration event. Paratroopers jumped out of planes and the Generals made appearances. He remained with the MP Platoon until returning to the United States [Annotator's Note: in late December 1945] aboard the Queen Mary [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Mary]. One morning, Zunno looked out at the Statue of Liberty. The statue was shrouded in fog but Zunno could see her enough to snap a photograph of her. Zunno was sent to Camp Kilmer [Annotator's Note: Camp Kilmer, New Jersey]. His unit was selected to march in a parade in New York [Annotator's Note: New York City, New York] in January 1946. Zunno was discharged from the Army as a private in March 1946.

After leaving the service, Frank Zunno never took advantage of the G.I. Bill because he did not want to have anything to do with the service again. The government sent him checks monthly due to a minor injury, but Zunno sent them back because he did not want them. He thought World War 2 was a great adventure. He joined the service because he was patriotic, and he enlisted because he did not want to be drafted. He believed that serving in the war gave him more maturity. He waited to marry because he did not want to have a family while he was in service. He is proud of his service but does not advertise it. America had no choice but to get involved in World War 2, so the country had to fight. Zunno believes it is important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] because the public needs to understand the country's history.